Spectacular EAF Finals See Jones Golden and Morgan Bronzed

TELFORD, England – With fog machines, colored spotlights, and a
huge crowd, the magic of the finals venue for the European Archery Festival
made for arguably the most exciting indoor archery setting in history.

The 3rd leg of the 2014 Indoor World Cup series followed stages in
Marrakesh and Singapore. The almost 900 participants shot a qualification round
of 60 arrows. The top 32 archers in each category then advanced to
bracket-style elimination matches with compound archers shooting for the
highest cumulative score over 5 sets, and recurve archers using the set system.

Just named World Archery’s Female Athlete of the Year for 2013,
Erika Jones (Grand Island, Neb.) qualified first for compound women, tying the
world record (593), and then dominated her elimination matches to finish with
gold.

Following a tradition of strong US compound international
performances, rising star Gabrielle Keiser (Yankton, S.D.), who was competing
as a cub just last year, finished 6th for compound junior women.
David Houser (Creekside, Pa.) dominated the junior compound men, qualifying
first and seizing the gold with ease.

In an all US bronze final, Paul Tedford (Great Falls, Mont.) and
Levi Morgan (Brevard, N.C.), dark horse competitors among incredibly seasoned
compound men, started the tournament with qualifying scores that had placed them in 2nd
and 21st . Morgan lost a semifinal shoot-off to eventual gold medal
winner, Peter Elzinga (NED), but came back to clinch the 3rd place
title.

Reo Wilde (Pocatello, Idaho) and Braden Gellenthien (College
Station, Tex.) qualified 16th and 17th respectively; the
two were unfortunately paired head-to-head early in the competition. Wilde took
the 1/16th win with a one-arrow shoot off before falling to Elzinga
in a quarterfinal decision.

Reo Wilde, Gellenthien, Anderson, Deaton, and Logan Wilde remain
in the top 8 Indoor World Cup rankings heading into the Vegas final. Joining
them in top 8 positions are also Jones, Colin, Van Natta and Gauvin for the
women.

Brady Ellison (Chula Vista, Calif.) topped qualifications over 250
recurve men with a wide margin. However, his quest for hardware ended in a
one-arrow shoot off in the quarterfinals against eventual silver medalist,
Thomas Faucheron (FRA). USA’s Jeremiah Cusick (Chula Vista, Calif.) had a
strong performance, making it through to the quarterfinals. Cusick is currently
leading the US men in ranking for the 2014 Indoor World Cup season, sitting in
2nd ahead of Ellison, who is 5th.

Young Kendra Hunhoff (Yankton, S.D.) was the lone US female
recurve competitor, ranking 20th as a junior. While no US senior
recurve women competed in Telford, Kim Yu Mi (KOR) tied the world record in
qualifications, and Aida Roman (MEX) was the single archer to challenge an
all-Korean sweep of the podium.